2023 High School Changemaker List

In 2022, the Tennessee Charter School Center established our first K-8 Changemaker Charter School List, honoring excellence in achievement, proficiency increase, and TVAAS growth for K-8 charter schools. As we near graduation time for the class of 2023, we are excited to announce our first High School Changemaker Charter School List, honoring the public charter high schools that stand out among their traditional and charter school peers.   Using TVAAS allows us to compare student achievement on standardized tests while accounting for the fact that students enter school with a variety of backgrounds and abilities. 

Ready Graduate is an indicator of how well high school graduates are prepared for college or a career. A student is considered “ready” if they meet one of several criteria including earning postsecondary credits in high school, achieving a high score on the ACT or SAT, or earning industry credentials, among others. Compared to other measures like graduation rates, Ready Graduate rates are a much stronger predictor of post-secondary enrollment after high school. 

A school’s College-Going rate reflects the percentage of graduates who enrolled in a postsecondary institution (4-year, 2-year, and less than 2-year) the year after high school. While we recognize that college is not for every student, research has shown a strong relationship between earning a college degree and higher earnings throughout life. Although not perfect, the number of students who enroll in college can serve as an indicator for how that school is preparing students for life after high school.

METHODOLOGY:

As a first step toward identifying High School Changemaker schools, we ranked all public schools in the state on each of these outcomes using the most recent data available (2022 for TVAAS and Ready Graduates and 2021 for College-Going rates). However, we realize that outcomes in a single year may not fully represent efforts to affect these outcomes. To address this, we also calculated four- and five-year changes in Ready Graduate and college-going rates for each school. This helped us identify schools that were improving on each of these outcomes over time. 

Finally, we recognize that not all schools are the same and that these measures, at face value, may overlook important work being done for students. As a result, we identified three groups to receive awards. These, along with the criteria for each are listed below.

CRITERIA:

Overall High School Changemakers [Top Schools Overall]: All public schools in the state were ranked on each of the criteria described above. To receive a top school award,  schools must have ranked in the top 25% on at least one of the following:

• 2022 Ready Graduate rates
• 2021 college-going rates
• Four-year changes in Ready Graduate rates
• Five-year changes in college-going rates

Additionally, schools must have received a TVAAS score of a 4 or 5 in 2022.

Trailblazer Changemakers [High Poverty Schools]: Research consistently shows that, on average, poverty puts students at a disadvantage academically. As a result, schools serving large numbers of these students may be doing excellent work but could be overlooked by the criteria described above. To make sure that we recognized these schools, we examined the same outcomes, but did so only among public schools where 50% or more of students identified as economically disadvantaged. Among these schools, an award school must have ranked in the top 25% on at least one of the following:

• 2022 Ready Graduate rates
• 2021 college-going rates
• Four-year changes in Ready Graduate rates
• Five-year changes in college-going rates

Additionally, schools must have received a TVAAS score of a 4 or 5 in 2022.

Rising Stars [High schools without Ready Graduate/College-Going data due to lack of or single year of graduating seniors]: We also recognize that the criteria for our awards focus heavily on graduation and postsecondary outcomes. However, many newer charter schools do not yet have graduating classes. Therefore, they will not have Ready Graduate or College-Going data. However, we want to recognize that these schools are doing great things for students and are on track for strong outcomes for future graduates. For schools that did not enroll 12th graders in 2022, we used the following criteria:

• Must have enrolled at least 30 students in 2021-2022
• Received a TVAAS score of 4 or 5 in 2022

2023 HIGH SCHOOL CHANGEMAKER CHARTER SCHOOLS

OVERALL

TRAILBLAZER

RISING STAR

¹ For more information about TVAAS, visit: https://www.tn.gov/content/dam/tn/education/data/tvaas/tvaas_technical_documentation_2016.pdf

² For more information about Ready Graduates, visit: https://www.tn.gov/content/dam/tn/education/accountability/acct/2020-21_ReadyGrad.UserGuide_20210209_Final%20(2).pdfhttps://www.tn.gov/content/dam/tn/education/accountability/acct/2020-21_ReadyGrad.UserGuide_20210209_Final (2).pdf

³ In an analysis of college-going rates, Ready Graduate rates, and graduation rates in 2021, we found that the predictive accuracy of Ready Graduate rates was nearly double that of graduation rates (R2 = .33 vs. .55).

⁴ For more information on College-Going data, visit: https://www.tn.gov/thec/research/college-going-reports.html

⁵ https://www.ssa.gov/policy/docs/research-summaries/education-earnings.html

⁶  Only four years of data were available for Ready Graduates whereas five years of data were available for College-Going rates.

⁷ In 2020, requirements for Ready Graduates to have scored at a certain level on several standardized tests was waived by the state of Tennessee and may have artificially increased Ready Graduate rates. However, since this affected all schools, it should not have a significant impact on our analysis. For more information, please visit: https://www.tn.gov/content/dam/tn/education/accountability/acct/2020-21_ReadyGrad.UserGuide_20210209_Final%20(2).pdf